Dear Homeless Person: Show respect when I give you spare change!

[kaylasdad99]

And without a home, you’ve got the added problem of finding a place to store your equipment…

[Claverhouse]

@curlcoat

…Even then it wasn’t really brought to my attention since that first ride was when I was in Vegas getting married and my husband paid the cab.

Ah, there’s the problem: it seems likely that unlike in other places perhaps cabbies in Vegas don’t expect tips, and possibly reject them when offered.

[lisacurl]

@curlcoat

If you really wanted to help these people, you would figure out a way to get them jobs so they don’t have to live on the largess of others.

The reasons why a person can become and stay homeless are complicated and individual, but it almost always involves chronic mental illness. Not all mental illness responds well to treatment, and our mental health system in this country is ill-designed and -equipped to support those who most need it. Substance abuse also figures into the problem, but the days of the wino who just lives under a bridge in order to drink the way he wants are long gone, if they ever existed. Alcoholism and drug addiction are usually complicating factors for someone who isn’t capable of even faking normalcy long enough to organize their lives to meet their basic needs.

I understand people are frightened of the homeless, both for apparent reasons and for deeper ones that they might not even recognize. But I also recall the original post. The issue has always been pretty clear-cut and most people with a modicum of human decency should be able to agree that choosing to give money to a panhandler doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole about it.

[kaylasdad99]

I give money to pretty much every panhandler I encounter.

I do insist that they be handling a pan when they ask me, though. Since I’ve instituted that policy, I’ve saved up enough spare change to buy lunch for myself and everyone in the building where I work.

[fuzzypickles]

@Cammacdon

Maybe you should just give up on the whole being charitable thing. You obviously miss the point. I wont judge you for not giving them change but i will call you out on the idea that you deserve special recognition.

The entire point is Darwinism – aka Survival of the Fittest. Someone who’s that far down the human food chain is obviously NOT fit to survive. End of story.

(And I’m baffled at how this thread’s still active after 2 1/2 mos…you guys must not be from L.A., apparently!)

@kaylasdad99

OP, why did you address it “DEAR Homeless Person:” when it’s patently obvious that you feel no affection toward this person at all?

Just being polite, which is more than that waste of human flesh deserved.

BTW, I did give a Montana state quarter to a bum in Sherman Oaks last week…he was sitting in his own filth near where I parked my car, and he seemed appreciative. (Anyone wanna guess why bothered to “act” charitable? Hint: he was sitting near where I parked my car.)

[curlcoat]

@lisacurl

The reasons why a person can become and stay homeless are complicated and individual, but it almost always involves chronic mental illness. Not all mental illness responds well to treatment, and our mental health system in this country is ill-designed and -equipped to support those who most need it. Substance abuse also figures into the problem, but the days of the wino who just lives under a bridge in order to drink the way he wants are long gone, if they ever existed. Alcoholism and drug addiction are usually complicating factors for someone who isn’t capable of even faking normalcy long enough to organize their lives to meet their basic needs.

I have no idea if that is true, but it does seem like someone should be responsible for that mentally ill person other than society at large. However, here in southern California it has been shown many times that a large number of our “homeless” are not in fact homeless and simply choose to panhandle as an easy way to make tax free money. I haven’t seen any recent stats on it but looking at the local panhandlers with their fairly new, clean clothes, recent haircuts and overall clean cut look, I do wonder how many of them are actually homeless.

I understand people are frightened of the homeless, both for apparent reasons and for deeper ones that they might not even recognize. But I also recall the original post. The issue has always been pretty clear-cut and most people with a modicum of human decency should be able to agree that choosing to give money to a panhandler doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole about it.

I am in no way afraid of the homeless and I didn’t see any indication in the posts here that anyone else is. I also don’t see anywhere in the OP that indicated that he was an asshole to “his” panhandler. If I had given one of them money and he rejected it as unworthy, I’d probably be a bit pissy about it and might even post to the Pit. Depending on my mood, I might even say something to the ungrateful jerk.

[Euphonious_Polemic]

@curlcoat

However, here in southern California it has been shown many times that a large number of our “homeless” are not in fact homeless and simply choose to panhandle as an easy way to make tax free money. I haven’t seen any recent stats on it but looking at the local panhandlers with their fairly new, clean clothes, recent haircuts and overall clean cut look, I do wonder how many of them are actually homeless.

No, nothing like this has ever been “shown”, even when one uses the deliberately vague term “a large number”.

And I seriously doubt that you have ever bothered to look for statistics about the root causes of homelessness.

[curlcoat]

@Euphonious_Polemic

No, nothing like this has ever been “shown”, even when one uses the deliberately vague term “a large number”.

And I seriously doubt that you have ever bothered to look for statistics about the root causes of homelessness.

Obviously you do not live here, or you would have seen the same newspaper articles I did. As for looking for statistics of the root causes of homelessness, I have no idea why that would be relevant, particularly in this thread.

[Fuji]

@fuzzypickles

The entire point is Darwinism – aka Survival of the Fittest. Someone who’s that far down the human food chain is obviously NOT fit to survive. End of story.

What a stupid statement. If your assertion were correct, then there wouldn’t be any homeless people to bother you in the first place!

(I am generously assuming here that you use the phrase “not fit to survive” in reference to nature, and not as a call for mass murder.)

[Fear_Itself]

@fuzzypickles

The entire point is Darwinism – aka Survival of the Fittest. Someone who’s that far down the human food chain is obviously NOT fit to survive. End of story.

Then the violent criminal who commits a home invasion, slaughters the family and takes their valuables is the pinnacle of success in your cosmology, because he best replicates the law of the jungle you espouse.

[flickster]

@curlcoat

In this area, many of the “homeless” are not in fact homeless, so they would not want you to “get them to a shelter”. Those who are in fact homeless know where said shelters are but when it is day time they are busy panhandling and therefore, again, do not wish you to “get them to a shelter”. A few of them are also violent, so it would not be safe for you to “get them to a shelter”.

If you really wanted to help these people, you would figure out a way to get them jobs so they don’t have to live on the largess of others.

They already have a job - getting suckers to give them money. Sadly, it’s the job they prefer and are able to make far more than starting off in a traditional job somewhere (plus there’s that pesky drug & background screening requirement for most of those)